8.14.2013

Zucchini Bread

Ok, I know... Everyone and their mother, and sister, and cousin, and neice have all made some version of zucchini bread. Some are awesome, some are not. I am now in full swing of zucchini hell madness, so I am eager to get these put up in some form or another.

Just a little caveat about putting up zucchini- I have tried that whole, shred it and freeze it and bake it later thing. That does not work, at least for me. The zucchini loses all body it had by turning its high water content into ice, making your later to come breads watery and gross. So bread is my favorite way to preserve the abundant squash.

I tried about 10 different recipes before coming up with my own modified version (doesn't everyone have one?) and I am pretty happy with the results. This one has a tender crumb, enough spice for me (I often double the spices in recipes like this, so just know, I already did that for you), and is sweet enough that I can eat a slice for dessert. I went a little nuts today, and I made 3 mini loaves and 3 large regular loaves.

Zucchini Bread

Makes 2 loaves

3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil (watching your calories? Sub in applesauce or mashed bananas)
2 cups sugar (you could also sub in honey for this at 1/2 the amount, so 1 cup, just make sure to add a little more flour so the batter isn't to liquidy)
2 cups shredded zucchini (don't fret if you have a little more or less than 2 cups. It will be fine.)
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3 cups all purpose flour (You can substitute up to 50% whole wheat flour if you like)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs cinnamon (if you lost your T measurement, this is 3 tsp)
1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 cup chopped nuts (use what you have, today I used walnuts, almonds, and pecans)
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Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare your loaf pans. I use glass pans lined with parchment, always.

Bake at 350 for 40-60 minutes or until a wooden skewer or knife comes out clean. Allow to cool in pans for 10-15 minutes, then turn out into a cooling rack. You can slice it hot (be careful!) or room temp, but make sure to enjoy with a smear of butter. Yum!

**My little note** A lot of recipes say to sift all your dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add in increments, blah blah blah. I don't do that, but I do know that cinnamon does NOT mix into wet ingredients well, so I put everything onto one of those flexible chopping mats, stir everything together with a fork, and then dump it in my mixing bowl. It only adds one more thing to wash, but makes sure that your spices and salt are evenly distributed in your batter. I also mix my nuts into the dry ingredients first for the exact same reason.

Hey! Add some variation and toss some shredded carrots in this one. Yummy!

Well, as the darned sqush bugs have long since desimated my spring zuke plants, I must wait to harvest my Fall zukes.....that is, the ones that haven't rotted on the plants already from the 3 weeks of rain.

Will try your bread recipe when I get some, 'cause I LOVE zucchini bread! Oh, and come to think of it, I think I made some good zucchini fritters a few years ago....remind me to look that up!

Your zucchini bread looks delicious. I made 2 loaves over the week-end and it was wonderful. Our recipes are similar. I put quite a bit of zucchini in the freezer for later use this winter. Saw your comment on the bread becoming too watery. I must research and see if there's a way to avoid this. Thanks for the tip.